Hi, this profile is for my partner Stephan and I, since we're starting some European travels to escape dissertation life for a good minute. We are both doctoral students at UC Berkeley, where I study how our healthcare system impacts people with chronic illness, and he studies how children learn language.

We both love growing and cooking our own food, architecture, hiking, learning about everything -- and we hope you will teach us about where you live and you! Our home is very important to us, because we have dinner parties multiple times a week. We love to entertain people and show them hospitality -- Stephan says it is something he gets from his Swiss relatives, and I have no idea where it comes from for me. Luckily, the largest room in our flat is the kitchen, and we're on the second floor of our building so it looks like we live in a tree house from the inside because we're at canopy level. Our roof has a 360 degree view of Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, and Marin, and we watch the sunset from up there everyday.

We listen to a lot of public radio and keep up with what's going on in the world. We love chatting about politics with friends and random people at cafes (when they want to). Stephan is adept with technology and I am not, so he is always fixing our and friends' computers. Stephan is more mellow than me and I am quite excitable, so we balance each other out. Stephan prefers the tops of mountains and the sea, while I fancy myself a forest creature -- so our rendezvous into nature usually has to include all three. We are both open with our thoughts and minds -- so ask us anything!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

We're looking to meet the kind of people who would like hosting people on Couchsurfers because it will be fun and more interesting than traveling in any other way. Also, we're grad students on a grad student salary...so yeah. Also, I (Lindsay) have food allergies and can't always eat out, so it would be nice if I could use your kitchen to make some food either just for myself or to cook with/for you!

Interests

• architecture
• dining
• cooking
• partying
• politics
• technology
• traveling
• eating out
• hiking
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Musically, Stephan is more into dubstep and trip-hop, while I like "sad girl music" and folk. Our tastes overlap with some more mellow trip-hop, electro-pop, and some early indie bands. Examples of these: Morcheeba, Zero 7, Robot Koch, Akiine, mum, Lusine.

We both read A LOT because we are graduate students, and we both love reading academically and for pleasure. One of our shared favorite books is Mountains Beyond Mountains, and we are both currently reading the book Evicted by a sociologist in my field. Stephan also reads magazines -- especially the New Yorker -- and he picks out stories for me that I'll like and I read those.

Movies-wise, we watch many documentaries, nature, and travel programs because we love learning about the world! The most recent movie we watched together that we liked is Mullholand Drive by David Lynch, which is one of the more watchable of his movies.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Cooking, stories, cleanliness, laughs, just ask.

Countries I’ve Visited

Cuba, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Cuba, United States